1896

1896

My father told me this story a few weeks before
he passed away in 1963. John H Hall

My Father is John
My Mother is Dolores
My Brother is Tom
Johns Father is Wes
My name is Jeremy
This story took place when John was 14 in the year of 1896. There were
still a few Cowboys around still riding the ranges and working on
ranches, carrying six gun's and lever action Winchester rifle's. We
lived on a ranch in Rawlins Wyoming and my brother Tom and I would work
the ranch, and did all these different chores, we would chop firewood
every other day for the wood stove and fireplace. We lived in a log
cabin house which was not in real good shape but we all made the best
of it. There was a large barn with a corral for the horses on the side.
We would all help out feeding the animals and taking care of the ranch.
It seemed like we were working all the time from daybreak until it got
dark. We had two cows we would milk and a number of chickens around the
ranch and quite a few horses and some cattle that my father Wes bought
and sold, for our living. We had a well in the middle of the yard,
where we would get our water from. We were very poor and barely making
it through each month. Once in a while my brother and I would hear this
whistle of a steam locomotive in the far off distance as it worked it's
way through the mountains hauling logs from high in the mountains above
the valley. My brother Tom said that he would like to see what that
steam engine looked like. My dad said he knew where the tracks were at,
and we would go someday when we figured the time of the train was
coming through the valley. We would all go in the wagon to watch it go
by. But it was not to be, we did hear it many times, but we never had
the time.
We were working the ranch all the time.
Eventually we did see the steam locomotive many years later. After
living there for a number of years we started noticing an Indian boy
that would watch us for hours from the side of a hill that overlooked
the back part of our property. Two or three times a week we would see
him up there. It went on for a few months. We notice him there in the
same spot, but he never came real close to the ranch. Then strangely,
we didn't see him any more. My dad and my brother Tom and I went
fishing down by the creek near our ranch one afternoon. As we were
sitting on the bank of the creek fishing we heard two rifle shots
coming from the direction of our ranch, we all knew it must have been
our mother shooting the rifle telling us she needed help. We all rushed
back to the ranch to find out what was going on. We rushed to our
mother, she said she had seen the Indian on our property and it looked
like he put some sort of note on our barn door.
We went over to the barn door to look at the note,
my father reached up and pulled it off of the door.
It was not a note, it was a picture of two boy's shaking hands, there
were beautiful trees and rocks in the background of the picture, and a
horse drinking from
a creek. We were all talking and looking at the picture he left on the
barn. I told my father maybe he wants
to be our friend and that is why he left the picture.
My dad looked a little confused for a few seconds
and rubbed the side of his face with his hand and said, that is a
pretty good drawing, I wonder where
he learned to draw. After that we looked for him on
the side of the hill all the time, but never saw him there again. My
dad like the picture so much he
nailed it on the wall in the house. My mom Dolores and dad said it's a
small picture but they both like the way he drew it. After working all
week on the ranch, on Saturdays my dad would put his gun on his side
and put on a long coat with large pockets on either side and a large
collar that practically covered his head and a brownish black hat. My
dad Wes would say in a low voice, he would be back in a few hours, and
of course my mom knew better than that.
After he would leave she would tell us it would be more like a few days
before he's back. He would go into town and gamble and drink, while my
mom brother and I would stay on the ranch. My mom would do all the wash
in a large wooden wash tub and hang them outside on a
clothesline.
She did all the cooking and cleaning around the house. We helped her
the best we could after doing our work around the ranch. She would tell
us she was going to make fried chicken and boiled potatoes for dinner
and special biscuits with gravy because she said, I love you both so
much. I remember her having this large cast-iron skillet on this
blazing red hot wood stove, getting ready to cook the chicken.
My brother Tom and I would stack a small pile of wood next to the stove
for her. After a few days my brother Tom would ask mom when dad was
coming home and with a smile on her face that was almost sad looking,
she would always say the same thing, "soon".
One time when my dad was in town drinking and gambling we had a
terrible accident on the ranch,
my brother Tom fell off of his horse and hit his head
on a large rock. My mom told me to rush into town to get a doctor and
find my father Wes. While the doctor rushed to the ranch, I looked all
around town, I found him in a few minutes in one of the gambling
bars.
I told him of the bad accident on the ranch, he jumped up from the
gambling table where he was sitting and grabbed me by the arm and said,
tell me what happened? I told him my brother Tom fell off his horse and
was hurt. We both hurried back to the ranch to see Tom and talk to the
doctor.
He was coming out of the house, with a sad look on his face. He told us
that my brother Tom had died of head injuries a few minutes ago. I
remember my dad looking towards the sky and screaming at the top of his
voice. Dear God, why did you do this to me?
as he was crying he started hitting the side of the wagon with his fist
until they were bloody.
I threw my arms around his waist and screamed at him, stop dad stop. My
mother Dolores came out on the porch crying, we all held each other and
wept, nothing could stop the pain. A little while later we all went
into the house. My dad held my mom in his
arms and told her in a low whimpering voice he
should have never left us alone.
I will never drink or gamble again, I will always try to be by your
side. My brother Tom was laid to rest a
few days later. Every once in awhile when my mom and I were alone I
would tell her,
"some day I will be rich" and you won't ever have to do any work again.
She would always look at me with a smile on her face but her eyes
always looked sad. Every once in awhile I would be looking out the
bedroom window near evening and I would see my mom walking up towards
the side of the hill where my brother Tom was buried. She would kneel
down along side the grave for a long while. After a while my dad would
be a long side her. A month or so later I was down fishing at the creek
by myself sitting by a tree very quietly trying to catch a good size
fish. I heard some noises coming from the trees behind me.
I reached over to grab my rifle that was leaning against a large rock
near me. I glanced around the side of the tree and there was the Indian
boy standing near a large tree about forty feet from where I was
sitting. I was stunned and couldn't move.
A scary feeling came over my whole body as we stared at each other for
a few seconds, him holding a rifle and a knife strapped to his side and
I'm holding my rifle. We just kept staring at each other for the
longest time. I did not want to shoot him accidentally, so slowly I
laid my rifle back against a boulder and he pointed his rifle towards
the ground and raised his right hand as if to say hi. I nodded my head
slowly to show him that I did not mean him any harm.
I slowly started talking to him and the longer we talked, I found out
he was the Indian boy that was watching us from the hill side near our
ranch.
To my surprise he could speak some English so I asked him where he
learn to draw and speak English. He told me that he was sent to a white
man's missionary school for a year.
It seemed like in a short while we were talking back and forth to each
other, as though we had known
each other for years. I felt like we were going to be good friends
right away. We talked for a while and I told him that I had to go back
to the ranch,
I would see him back at this place in a few days.
As he turned to leave he glanced at the ring on my right hand. I told
him my father Wes gave me this ring
when I was nine and told me someday it will bring me good luck. He
pointed to my ring a few times and mentioned that he liked the color. I
told him it was gold, he shook his head telling me he did not know what
that was. We talked for a few more minutes and he went off down along
the river. When I got back home and told my dad and mom that I had met
the Indian boy that we used to see on the hill, they could not believe
that I was actually talking to him.
My mom asked me if I had thought he would be a danger to us. My dad
said that he didn't want me near him anymore, he could be dangerous. I
told my mom and dad there was no problem, he was real nice and there
was no way that he was a danger to any of us. My dad Wes looked me
straight in the face and said, ok John your big enough to take care of
yourself now, your almost 14 but do not turn your back on him at any
time. I know you can take care of yourself but be careful. A few days
later the Indian boy and I met at the creek. We talked quite a bit and
had a lot of fun being together. We saw each other quite often for the
next couple weeks and then he noticed my ring once again. He started
pointing towards the Mountain saying that he knew where that color was
at on the other side of the mountain. He wanted to take me and show me
where the color of the ring was.
I wasn't sure if I should go with him, I've only known him a short time
but for some reason I felt safe with him. I told him ok" let's go show
me where this color is at, you are talking about. We got on our horses
and I told him to lead the way. He rode a little ahead of me so I could
watch him. As we got around the side of the mountain I was still
feeling a little cautious.
He pointed towards the trees and to some large rocks. I notice some
shiny stuff alongside the rocks and as I moved toward the rocks, I
could not believe what I was looking at. I was sure "It was gold." I
stared at it, seemed like minutes but I knew it was only a few seconds.
I would say it over and over in a low voice, "it's gold.'' I turned and
looked at the Indian boy and he had a smile on his face, as if to say
that he knew it was gold. The Indian boy said take as much as you want.
There were little small nuggets, I reached down and started grabbing as
much as my hands would hold. There was still more gold laying around on
top
of the ground. The Indian boy kneeled down on the ground and started
helping me gather some of the smaller nuggets of gold into a small
pile. I couldn't believe it was just laying all around on top of the
ground and down along the sides near the cracks at the bottom of the
large boulders. I started stuffing my pockets and when they were filled
I took my hat off and bringing it in close to me, I started filling it
with
the rest of the little nuggets laying around on top of the ground. As I
was picking them up off the ground,
my hands were shaking so much I could hardly hold them. Stuttering with
excitement in my voice,
I said to the Indian boy, what is your name? he looked towards me with
both hands filled with little nuggets and dirt falling between his
fingers. In a low voice with a smile on his face he said Tatum. I was
silent for a few seconds and as we were both kneeling on the ground
gathering up the gold, we looked into each other's eyes and I said
"Tatum thank-you" for showing me where this gold was at.
My Name is John I will never forget you for the rest of my life. Slowly
I reached out and touched his hand in gratitude. He put his right hand
over his heart and his left hand over my shoulder and with a big smile
said we are friends. Then he got up on his horse and slowly went down
the trail looking back at me once, and then disappeared. I rushed back
to the ranch to show everyone all the gold I had found.
My parents could not believe it, when I brought the gold into the house
and dumped it on the table they were in shock. My dad picked up a small
nugget and looked at my mother Dolores and said,
"my god it's real". I thought my mom was going to pass out. We all
started yelling and jumping up and down, we were all so happy. I put my
arms around
my mom and told her you won't have to work anymore. I told them that
the Indian boy's name was Tatum and he had showed me where the gold was
at. My parents wanted to thank him for showing me where it was, my dad
said I wonder why he would do that.'' I don't know, I said it's like a
dream and I'm going to wake up. I told dad I was so excited about
the gold I forgot to set up a meeting place with him along the creek
again. But I'm sure that I will see him and when I do, I will
definitely tell him you thank him.
Over the next three or four days we washed and cleaned and with my
father's scale he had in the barn we weighed all the gold. As close as
we could figure, it was about $54,000 thousand in gold. 1896 we felt
like we must be the riches people in the territory.
We took a few little pieces of gold and we jumped in the wagon and went
into town. My mom and dad bought everything we could get our hands on
in the store. I had never seen my mother and father so happy. When we
were in town buying everything up, the store clerk and a few of the
people were asking how we could afford to buy all this different stuff
we were getting. My dad looked over at my mother and me, then back at
the person who asked the question and said he had found a little piece
of gold down by the creek where we live. After that we would go to
surrounding towns to buy what we wanted, so the people in our town
would not be asking questions all the time. We did see a number of
people going down by the creek where my father said he found the gold,
but they never found any. My family never had to worry about food or
anything after that.
My dad bought up a lot of the surrounding property where we lived and
bought a lot of cattle and horses. He had an extra barn built near our
other one.
Within eight months we were one of the largest ranches in Rawlins. My
dad and I went back up to that spot many times looking for more gold
and never located even a speck of it. I had never seen or heard from
Tatum the Indian boy after he had showed me where the gold was. For a
long time I searched all round for Tatum and even went into a couple of
small towns near where we lived. I went as far as getting permission to
go on to the Indian reservations and even there no one had ever heard
of him. It was like he had just disappeared. Then as the years passed
on and the ranch was paid off we still had Plenty of money left. My
parents hid the gold somewhere around the ranch because my dad never
trusted banks and didn't want the towns people to know that we had
gold. Then as the years went on to the 1900 through 1926, my mom and
dad and I were in town one day when we heard all this noise coming from
behind the store. Suddenly this funny looking machine came from behind
the building. We all jumped back up on the wooden porch of one of the
stores we were in front of. My dad grabbed my mother holding her to
protect her, saying "what the heck is that noise?.
A farmer standing in front of the store said don't be afraid, it is one
of those new Motor cars. As It passed in front of us, I remember my mom
saying, what makes it go ? there's no horses. The farmer and a
few of the people standing around there all had a little laugh over
that. We stood there watching it go on down the dirt road. My dad Wes
said, what will they think of next. Things were going pretty good
for
a long while. Then sadness struck our home in 1938. My mother Dolores
passed away very suddenly.
It was a very warm day and she went in to the bedroom to lay down and
rest and never woke up.
My dad and I were very broken up and grieved about losing her for a
long while. My dad would keep saying he couldn't go on without mom. We
would talk quite a bit about how much we missed her.
We became much closer, we both missed her very much but, we both knew
we could go on.
In 1940 my father Wes died and left everything that we owned property
and all to me John.
The night before my dad Wes passed a way he told me what was left of
the gold and where I could find it. It was buried near the back porch.
Nine months later
I married my long time girl friend Ann. A year later we had a son, we
named him Jeremy. And as the years went on its seemed like each year
was coming faster and faster. In 1962 I told my son Jeremy and my
wife
I wish I could be around for an eternity. But it was not to be, My
father John passed a way the following year in 1963 he was 87. Shortly
before my dad John passed away in 1963 while he was in the
hospital,
"he told me this story" about the Indian boy Tatum
and this gold ring he always wore. He remove the ring from his finger
in the hospital just before he died, gave it to me and said this ring
always brought me good luck when I rubbed it. He told me someday it
will bring me good luck too. A few years after my dad John died, I
decided to put the ring away for safekeeping. I didn't believe that if
I rubbed on the ring that it would bring me luck. I was always afraid
of loosing the ring, it meant so much to me. Years later In 1989, I
bought a home in Palms Springs California. One evening my wife and I
went down on Saturday to buy lottery tickets. She told me she had felt
lucky and bought three tickets. For some reason I have been thinking of
my father's ring for the last three weeks.
I've had it stored in our closet in a metal box for
many-many years. So when we got back home I retrieved it from the metal
box where it had been for
a long time. I put it on and sat on the floor of the closet and thought
of my family and the ranch we
lived on many years ago. I went downstairs and
I told my wife, I am going back to buy one more
ticket. As I rubbed the gold ring I felt a strange
feeling come over my body, I felt so lucky
I just knew I was going to win. As I went back to the store the clerk
said, so your back for one more
ticket. This one might be a winner for you.
As soon as I touched the ticket, I knew it was a winner. Yes it was a
winning ticket. It took me back
to when my father John told me the story about "him and Tatum" finding
that gold. And how the gold ring
he gave me would bring me luck someday.
And it did. THE END

A story by Norman Clifford